The Fandom Games
by Hollyquin
Summary: Twelve dimensions are brought together by a mysterious thirteenth- in which a male and female tribute from each fandom will be chosen to fight to the death. Chapter 1A: The Fandom Games come to the Whoniverse, as the Games officially begin...
1. Introduction: The Doctor in the TARDIS

The Doctor frowned.

Yes, okay, time was a wibbly wobbly thing, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint at least. Everyone knew that, or at least anyone worth their stuff did, but this was something new to him. Space, space was strange, sure, space did some pretty weird things, but space wasn't _meant_ to be all…wibbly. Space was a little bit more stable, probably to make up for all the messing about in time. But one day, suddenly, there was this…this _pressure_, the Doctor wasn't sure how else one would describe it, this intergalactic, in fact universal _pressure_. Universal pressure, as in a pressure on the entire universe, from both sides, if a universe can be said to have sides, which it most definitely cannot, which makes this whole description kind of bunk, really…

Forget about all of that pressure stuff.

The main bit of importance was that something was wrong.

Universes, or dimensions, or whatever it was you wanted to call them- dimensions seemed to make more sense, really, how could there be anything besides the universe, ignoring that time he went outside the universe, _anyway_- were being pressed up against each other. He had an inkling that were he to get in the TARDIS and send himself and his companions barreling in insert-direction-here, he'd send himself spinning into an alternate dimension.

Which wasn't how they were supposed to work. Different dimensions were not supposed to be pressed against each other like bloody donuts in a box, they were supposed to overlap. _Why? _he wondered. _Why now? The only reason, the only inkling of a reason I have is that separating dimensions this way would allow ease of access between them…I wonder-_

The letter provided some answers.

Not enough answers. And it certainly raised more questions. But it was a start.

_Welcome to the first annual Fandom Games!_

_In order to settle the wars in our home dimension, 2 tributes- one male and one female, with certain exceptions- will be taken from each of our most favored alternate dimensions._

_These tributes, 24 in total, will be brought to our home dimension, treated with great honor and care, and then placed in a fight to the death that only one can survive._

_A Reaping will take place on a specific location in each dimension. In dimensions where it is relevant, time has been altered so that all possible tributes can exist in one location at one time._

_Tributes can be up to any age from a minimum of twelve in human years._

_Only mortals will be eligible for reaping. Any powers that might result in an unfair advantage against your average human will be removed by our Arena._

_Representatives from our dimension will arrive to carry out the Reapings shortly. _

_Failure to comply will result in the permanent destruction of your dimension._

_Do not attempt to fight us._

_Have a happy Fandom Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!_

_~The Capitol_

And with that, a smaller piece of paper, clearly personalized-

_THE WHONIVERSE: District 1_

_EXCLUDED FROM THE REAPING: The Doctor, Jack Harkness_

The more the Doctor stared at these pieces of paper, the more questions he had. Like, who? What? Why, why was a good one. How as well- how were any people so powerful that they could threaten the destruction of other dimensions, that they could move them about at will like this? More importantly-

What was he going to do?

What was anybody going to do…?

There was only one thing he knew for certain. They were coming.


	2. Chapter 1A: Silence Will Fall

This was...what was a good word?

_Bonkers_.

Absolutely _mad_.

Forget the obvious- the obvious being that some interdimensional transport had taken place, and that the multiverse must be collapsing _yet again_, and that the very whole of reality was at stake. Forget all of that even though all of that is not particularly easy to forget, particularly when your major purpose in life is to prevent things like multiverse-collapses. Because you've suddenly found yourself surrounded by impossible things.

Trafalgar Square, that's where you've ended up. Year, indeterminate. Certainly it is some time in what your companions would call the "modern era", considering the architecture and the conspicuous lack of hovercars. But then again there's a conspicuous lack of any activity outside of a single group occupying much of the square. There are no cars, no animals, no life at all outside of this one group of people, and it is very, very suspicious and very, very interesting.

The group is large and varying and each member has exactly one thing in common-

Every single member has met you.

Though the group hardly consists of everyone you've ever met, it reads almost as a highlight reel of your many lives. Your many companions are nearly all present- Jamie, Adric, Sarah Jane, Romana, Peri, Ace, Martha, Amy, Rory...it was completely absurd. Completely mad and absurd- so many of them were dead, or left on alien planets, or-

Rose. Rose was there. The collapse of the multiverse, indeed. You couldn't bear to look at her.

Or Donna- Donna, she might have been the most inexplicable. It was clear that she had regained her memories, considering that the first words you heard out of her mouth were something about "giving that alien boy a piece of my mind", but- but that was impossible. She should be dead. If she was here, surrounded by people she absolutely should not remember- she should be dead, yet another death on your conscious, one you'd fought so hard to prevent- and yet.

You realize.

All of your companions, plucked out of time, from the points in their timelines when they were yours. They're alive, and well, and they know you and love you and remember you, every one, and part of you wants to run out to join them, to embrace them, to relive the memories, to-

You can't.

You are hidden in plain sight in a way- only the Ponds and River Song would recognize your face. You stay away from them, and you see the eyes of the others notice you and then pass slowly over, searching for a face they recognize, the face of their Doctors. You are not theirs. You are the future to them, and you know _their _future, and it hurts. It hurts far, far too much, particularly when you realize you were wrong when you thought that only three knew who you were.

A smirking man far removed from the rest of the group certainly did. Drumming out a familiar four-part beat on his leg, his eye twitched when he looked at you. He doesn't move, though, or speak. Instead, he turns to look at the biggest anomaly of all.

A girl.

She cannot be older than perhaps seventeen, and unlike everyone else in the group she looks unambiguously happy to be here. In fact, she seems to be a bit in awe. In awe of what you're unsure- your little group is pretty much entirely human (with a few Time Lords and other human-looking aliens mixed in), none of them look extraordinary to anyone who doesn't know them. You notice that she's looking around, almost eagerly, and something tells you that it's you she's looking for. You duck out of sight.

There is a podium there, you suddenly notice, and if you only just noticed a thing like that it certainly wasn't there before a moment ago. You are pretty sure those rather ominous lottery buckets weren't there a moment ago either.

You recall the contents of the letter you received.

The girl's t-shirt says "DON'T BLINK" in big block letters.

You blink.

* * *

_Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my GOSH-_

It's all I can do not to scream. Who could have known, who could have possibly known that I would ever end up in this position, standing in front of some of the GREATEST CHARACTERS EVER? I mean, Capitol tech is incredible, sure, but I hardly expected that what we'd discover when we got interdimensional travel worked out- every world we could imagine, every world that we thought was pure fiction, every single one was real. The worlds from every movie, TV show, book, video game- they all existed. Some of those universes overlapped- alternate timelines within universes, for example- and some were connected, but most were isolated and completely inaccessible. As ours was.

We were the first to reliably harness the technology. Sure, plenty of the sci-fi verses (_it feels so weird saying that!_) had invented some form of interdimensional travel- but those verses could only reach overlaps of their own. Doctor Who was a perfectly good example- there were (extremely dangerous) ways to travel to alternate dimensions, but those were only different versions of the Doctor Who dimension, not entirely different-

Are you still with me? Sorry, I'm really not used to having an audience!

The point, I suppose, is that we're totally unique among the dimensions- the master dimension, if you will!

And the game they will play is a reflection of this.

I don't care too much about the semantics, myself. All I thought when I heard about the discovery was _oh my god, does this mean I can meet the Doctor?!, _and it was a long, hard audition process, but somehow I got selected, and now, here I am- in this universe of Time Lords.

I try not to stare, but it's hard. There's Rose! Rose Tyler, in the flesh, and there's Amy and Rory (OTP FOREVER), and River Song, and Donna! And ugh, Martha, but that's okay because there's Captain Jack, ooh-er, maybe I should- oh, there's the Master! He's here too, but where-

Where's the Doctor? I don't see him. He can't be selected, so he doesn't need to be here, but I so wanted to meet him...

I sigh and press a button on my Official Fandom Games Coordinator Wristwatch, and a podium appears, along with the lottery balls containing the names of all the people assembled before me- the people who all stop talking, taking notice of me for the first time. I beam at them all- my heroes, my _friends_- as I take my position at the podium.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the first annual Fandom Games!" I say, loudly and clearly. We are supposed to stick to the established speech, which is carved into the podium designed for this purpose. I hardly look down, though- of course I've already memorized every word. I scan the faces in front of me- most of them look bewildered and all are silent, though Donna looks like she's about to say something. I hurriedly continue on.

"Now, there's quite a bit I could get into here but the gist of it is that I hail from an alternate dimension. Not an alternate dimension as you might know them..." Regulations state that I can't personalize the speech, but I can't help but look at Rose. "...but a further-off sort, one that would be impossible for any of you to reach. The people of my dimension developed the technology to travel here, and to eleven other dimensions, which we have designated as 'Districts'. This dimension has been designated 'District 1'."

I smile again, my right hand poised over a particular button on my wristwatch, a button emblazoned with a quill.

"These twelve dimensions are the twelve that have been chosen to compete in the Fandom Wars- a battle between the favored people of the Capitol." Regulations stated that we couldn't let anyone know that we considered them to be fictional characters. What a riot that would start!

"Supporters of each of your dimensions have been arguing since long before we gained the ability to travel to them. Now that the ability to come to you has been secured, we now have a definitive way of ending our troubles. That is, we can have you decide for us who is superior!"

None of this makes sense, of course. I know it doesn't make sense, because it is impossible for it to if you don't know the one inescapable truth- that Doctor Who is a television show, and that all the people before me are characters. Lovely, wonderful, beautiful characters that I have many feelings about, but characters nonetheless. We can't tell them that, and therefore we have to somehow convince them that we've been fighting over them since long before we could even discover them. Luckily, the Capitol had a solution for that too.

"The Fandom Games was our solution. Simply put, one man and one woman will be chosen from each of the twelve Districts. Certain people have been eliminated from the pool of competition based on abilities that they have that might give them an unfair advantage. Mundane powers will be stripped by the arena, so those are not disqualifiers. The likelihood of any given person being chosen depends on their popularity in the Capitol.

Simply stated, the two chosen- 'tributes', we call them, will accompany me to the Capitol, where they will fight to the death in an arena with the twenty-three other tributes. The sole survivor will be allowed passage home, with their dimension officially carrying the title of the Victor."

I wait.

"...Now wait just a flippin' MINUTE-"

My finger hit the button as the first voice of protest- Donna's, predictably- started up, with a cavalcade of other voices following shortly behind hers. This isn't what our audiences want- no one wants protest, or questions about the legality of this, or confusion as to our identities. No one wants to see their favorite characters upset over the _premise_.

That's what the Writer's Field does, essentially. It's such a simple concept- it creates an area where the people within will accept whatever situation they are put in. Based on the ridiculous fanfiction written back home- where characters seem completely okay with the insane circumstances authors put them in- it's a simple psychic field that's quite easy to set up. Technically I probably should have put the field up before the speech began, but I...I don't know. I guess I wanted to see how they'd react without it, first.

But really. Was I expecting anyone to accept that they were to battle for the death for no reason relevant to them without a psychic field to tell them to?

Of course not.

I smile as I watch them, as their expressions turn from anger to shock, terror, and sadness. The realization, artificial as it was, that at least one of them was going to die-

It was heartwrenching. So beautifully heartwrenching. I could just see my audience back home crying at the tears suddenly streaming down Rose's face, at the way Amy and Rory were suddenly clutching each other's hands desperately, the way Donna seemed lost for words for maybe the first time-

It was all so beautiful.

I walked towards the first lottery ball, the one with the male names inside. Whose name would I pull? Personally, I was hoping for the Master, but it could be anyone. That was half the fun.

The First Annual Fandom Games were about to begin, for real.

* * *

I got so distracted by college, you guys.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Half a year later and here's the next chapter! There will be a second, shorter part up probably within a week, so y'all can sweat over who's going to be Reaped- this is mainly a long piece of exposition, as the speech will be presumed to be identical in all the other Districts.

Let me know in the reviews- who do you think's gonna get picked? (And yes, I totally know who it's gonna be already. Spoilers!)


End file.
